A popular personal computer application finding a wide variety of uses is the multimedia application. The multimedia application typically displays visual and audio images to one or more users. The visual images may include text, graphics as well as video. One problem with multimedia applications is that their design is time consuming and complicated. To aid in the design of such multimedia applications, various design tools have been proposed. Multimedia applications design tools are used to assemble collections of multimedia data and to define the connections for links between the data files. For example, a multimedia application may include a data file that creates a visual image when processed by a visual image generation system. Other data files may generate audible sounds when processed by a sound generating system.
While multimedia application design tools do aid in the construction of the multimedia application, many of them are complex and require many hours for the user to learn how to use the design tool. Many of the conventional design tools also require the designer to keep track of operating parameters. Failure to set the various operating parameters in proper condition can result in system failure such as causing the application to access files out of order. This problem may be more significant in a local area network, where multiple users may have access to a plurality of multimedia application data files.
Another problem with the design of multimedia applications is the requirement that some data files such as graphic images, text files or audio files, may require resources or drivers for generating the corresponding image, text or sound. If these drivers are not present or are not linked to the specific data files, the multimedia application may not function. Many of the conventional tools available to multimedia designers require the designer to specifically link the data file to its corresponding driver. Failure by the designer to make the link may result in an inadvertent design error causing the multimedia application to malfunction.